Clicks Get Slick

You’re about to see a shake-up with your Google Ad Spend – and get a much clearer picture of what your Google ads are pulling in.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is getting a serious facelift, specifically targeting how your paid search efforts are credited. Turns out, they’ve been giving too much credit to organic search and not enough to those clicks you actually paid for.

So, what’s the big deal? Google’s tightening up their tracking game to make sure paid search conversions get the recognition they deserve. This means if you’ve been shelling out cash for clicks, you may be going to see a bump in what’s attributed to your ads. More bang for your buck, right? Well, yes, but it also means your ad budget could feel the squeeze as these conversions rise.

Our tip? Check your budgets! Then hold tight – not all businesses are going to be affected, but with the changes rolling out over the next couple of weeks, you don’t want to be caught off guard. They’re tweaking the attribution model so that it keeps up with the digital breadcrumb trail from the first click, even if users bounce around before converting.

Why should you care? Well, you should be about to get a clearer picture of what your paid search is actually pulling in. With more precise data, you can steer your marketing dollars more effectively, ensuring you’re investing in campaigns that really perform. Plus, you’ll have better insights to fine-tune your strategies, optimise your spending, and maybe even discover new opportunities to grow your conversions. Read more in this article from userp and via Search Engine Journal here. 

If you’ve got lots of questions, or need some help, send us a message.

You Blue-ty

Queensland is calling all Bluey fans for the ultimate game of “keepy uppy”! 

This is the state’s biggest tourism splash in a decade, “Bluey’s world, for real life.” Inspired by Bluey’s balloon-bouncing antics, this campaign transforms Queensland’s stunning spots – from the bustling streets of Brissy to the beautiful Great Barrier Reef – into a real-life playground for Bluey and her animated family. With wildlife hero Robert Irwin leading the charge, Queensland isn’t just inviting you to visit, they’re inviting you to come and play!

It’s in conjunction with the interactive Bluey’s World which will hit Brisbane’s North Shore in November. It looks like they’re hoping Bluey’s World will be a massive drawcard for International tourists – they’ve predicted an additional 1.3 million visitors to the state, and estimated they will spend $1.7b by June 2025. 

If you couldn’t tell, we love Bluey at LM. 

And we reckon this is another very clever move for the Bluey creators and smart play for TEQ – who could possibly resist the charm of Bluey combined with Queensland’s stunning beauty? In our opinion, it’s a bit of fun and some clever marketing that’ll be sure to turn fans into tourists and dollars (and yes, we will probably book tickets to Bluey’s World).  

Check out the article here.

Fire and Billboards

Ready to watch a dragon torch a billboard in downtown Sydney?

BINGE has unleashed a CGI dragon to heat up the launch of ‘House of the Dragon Season 2‘. This digital campaign has Vhagar The Dragon over Taylor Square, breathing fire onto a billboard, scorching it into an epic, smouldering display of loyalty to the duelling factions of Team Green and Team Black.

Interactive AI marketing tactics like this are catching fire globally, as brands discover their potent mix of spectacle and cost-efficiency. It’s a clever way to captivate audiences both online and offline, blending digital wizardry with real-world impact.

But the fiery fun doesn’t stop there. BINGE dropped CGI banners from landmarks across Australia, asking cities to pledge their allegiance in a visually stunning global activation. They’ve even spiced things up with a Game of Thrones-themed hot sauce in green and black.

Cities worldwide joined in, with digital CGI banners taking over famous landmarks across New York City including the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges and the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Al Ula in Saudi Arabia, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Obelisco in Buenos Aires, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and many more.

These sorts of campaigns are good fun, and a blazing example of how interactive and immersive marketing can create buzz, engage viewers, and even make them part of the story. Ready to pledge your allegiance and maybe grab some fire-resistant sauce? You can check out some of the Sydney campaign here and some more from the global campaign here.

Bilingual Bots

Ever wondered what it would be like if your favourite TikTok creators could chat with you in multiple languages?

Well, TikTok’s rolling out something pretty wild: AI-generated avatars, complete with dubbing tools that could chat away in over 10 languages. It’s part of their new Symphony ad suite, aiming to help brands and creators reach audiences globally. 

Potentially the coolest (read: scariest) bit is that these avatars aren’t just any avatars. They can be customised to look and sound just like popular creators or even a brand’s spokesperson. That means you could post a video of a well-known influencer and have them speak in Spanish – even if they don’t speak the language. 

Impressive? Yes. Creepy? Also yes. 

TikTok says they’re doing this to add a ‘human touch’, but we’re not sold that replacing humans with AI will achieve that. 

The content will be labelled as AI-generated, but looking at the examples they’ve given, apart from some potentially over-exaggerated expressions, at first glance, you’d never know it was AI. 

They also accidentally released their internal testing version, letting users create videos that could say just about anything. Whoops!

While these tools are ingeniously crafted to broadcast messages far and wide, it raises a BIG question for us when it comes to authenticity. In an era where audiences are craving genuine connections and demanding authenticity from brands, how will they react to interacting with digital clones? Will we be able to engage with these virtual visages in the same way we do with real influencers and content creators? Or will they leave us feeling a bit disconnected and heading in a different direction completely.

It will be very interesting to see how these play out. What are your thoughts?

Read the article here.

Plot Twist

Thought short-form video was the way to a shopper’s heart? Think again!

Emplifi’s latest scoop reveals that videos lasting 26 seconds or more are hitting the sweet spot for viewer engagement on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Despite the buzz about our shrinking attention spans, Emplifi’s study – which spanned over 325,000 brand profiles – shows that not only are medium-to-long videos thriving, but they’re also carving out a niche among content-thirsty audiences. While Instagram Reels and TikTok videos continue to be heavy hitters, it’s the longer, visually engaging stories that seem to be keeping viewers hooked.

The takeaway? Don’t put those longer scripts on the shelf just yet. With visual storytelling more crucial than ever, we suggest you mix up what you serve your audience; test short bursts of video against longer video for deeper dives, as well as different ways of telling your brand story to keep your audience engaged. 

Dive into Emplifi’s report via this article for more.

Keen To Dive In?

If you love what we’ve shared above and want to be kept in the loop with our weekly email, The Brief, you can sign up here. We’ll only send you things we love and think you’ll find useful, and you can unsubscribe at any time. And if you need some help exploring any of the above within your own marketing strategy, or you need a rebrand, a custom website built from scratch, Google or social ads, print materials, blog posts – or the whole lot – we’d love to chat. Drop us a line here.